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Saturday, December 29, 2012

It wasn’t easy, but Sweden got the job done. The defending champs
remained unbeaten with a 5-1 win over Latvia at Ufa’s Sports Palace on
Saturday. Sebastian Collberg scored the second-period winner.

Tre Kronor sits atop Group A with eight points. The Latvians, who are
last with zero points, are destined for the Relegation Round.

Viktor
Arvidsson tallied two goals for Sweden, and Emil Molin finished with a
goal and an assist, as did Collberg. Alexander Wennberg had a single.
Swedish captain Filip Forsberg had two assists.

Teodors Blugers replied for Latvia.

"I
think we played really well," said Swedish head coach Roger Rönnberg.
"We did everything but scoring in the first half of the game. I think
it’s a tough situation, just winning the game 2-1 at the start of the
third period. But the boys handled the situation really well. They kept
their focus, kept shooting."

The
Swedes will face traditional rival Finland on New Year’s Eve. Latvia
concludes its round-robin slate against the Czech Republic on Sunday.

"It’s
going to be a tough challenge for us," said Rönnberg about confronting
Finland. "I think Finland has maybe the best team they’ve had in my
three years as a head coach at the World Juniors. They always put
together teams that are working hard, but this year they have really
skilled forwards. I think we have to play our best to have a chance
against them."

Latvia lost all three of its previous World Junior
meetings with Sweden by lopsided scores: 10-2 (December 30, 2005), 10-1
(December 29, 2008), and 9-4 (December 26, 2011). So this was an
improvement.

With just 50 seconds left in the first period, Molin
opened the scoring for Sweden on a two-man advantage, putting a loose
puck in the goal crease in. Never in World Junior history have the
Latvians succeeded in keeping Sweden off the scoreboard for an entire
period.

"I think the first period was hard," said Collberg. 'We
didn’t get the puck in the net, but we just kept going. We said before
the game that we wanted to work for 60 minutes. We didn’t do that as
well yesterday [in a 3-2 win over Switzerland], we think."

Latvia
got a 5-on-3 of its own early in the second period and cashed in.
Blugers hesitated in the right faceoff circle before zinging a high
wrister past Lundström’s stick side at 3:50.

Punnenovs looked
sharp during a mid-period Swedish power play, allowing nothing as
Forsberg hammered one-timers from the left faceoff circle.

"He
was unbelievable," said Rönnberg of the Latvian goalie. "It would have
been a 9-1 game if he had played just a normal game in the net. Big
credit to him."

The skating tempo picked up as the Latvians
grasped that they were still in the game. But they couldn't stay out of
the penalty box, incurring three consecutive minors.

Collberg put
Sweden up 2-1 on the power play with another high stick side goal at
16:18, teeing up a lethal wrister from the high slot.

Filip Sandberg rang one off the crossbar with about 30 seconds left in the middle frame.

Approaching
the halfway mark of the third period, Punnenovs foiled William Karlsson
on a breakaway. Yet the Latvian netminder's heroics wouldn't be enough.

Sweden
went up 3-1 on a pretty play at 9:21. With the teams playing 4-on-4,
Arvidsson took a drop pass inside the Latvian zone from Forsberg and
dangled his way to the hash marks before roofing it home.

At 11:49, Arvidsson neatly deflected in a power play drive from the blue line by Christian Djoos for a 4-1 edge.

"I think today our power play was really good," said Arvidsson. "I think we’re going to do well against Finland too."

Wennberg rounded out the scoring with 47 seconds left.

The
Swedes have allowed just three goals in three games to date. That’s a
fine defensive accomplishment, considering they’re missing, among
others, three NHL first-round picks on the blueline due to injuries:
Oscar Klefbom, Jonas Brodin, and Hampus Lindholm.

By the same
token, Sweden’s offensive production is just over half of what it was
last year at this point. Through three games, they’ve scored 12 goals;
in 2012, they had 22.